Prologue

PROLOGUE:

My parents are Israeli. My dad’s mom, Frieda went to Israel in 1934 to escape the Holocaust. She met my grandfather there. My mother’s family was not so lucky and the few that survived the Holocaust went back to Hungary where they continued to face antisemitism and riots. After surviving Auschwitz, 3 other death camps and a death march, my Savta (grandma) and her sisters walked/hitchhiked home to Hungary. But they could not stay....

Here is what Israel means to my Savta in her own words:

“So we came home and we started waiting for my dad to come home because my parents were so young.  I waited for my husband to be too, it was serious.  We didn’t get married though because there was a war. My husband came back and we had a wedding in Szerencs.  My sister stood in place of my mom.  Well, it wasn’t really a wedding.  It was really difficult without my parents.  It was already August.  We waited 3 months and still didn’t have anybody.  My sister was already married.  Her husband was in Russia in a prison camp, we knew that.  She said, “what should we do?”  We have no choice; we will have to marry you. Mr. (Vilmos) Reisner was a real mensch. You could trust him.  That was a shidduch.  I was already 21. Of all my relatives, one other person survived.  My father’s brother was alive.  He was the interferer, my father’s brother.  On my mother’s side, I had my sister, the one that was older than me.  Only the family was invited, about 5 or 6 that’s all. Maybe 15.  My husbands’ brothers were there and my uncle and a few cousins, 2 or 3 that were alive.  They brought the rabbi, our rabbi had just came back  – 2 weeks before.  His name was Polack or something.  There was no dress or anything.  My sister said, don’t worry, I’ll make you a white dress and she took a white sheet.  I didn’t really dream about it, I didn’t want it. But we thought that was the tradition.  It was a short one made from the white sheet. They found something to put on my head and the rabbi came and did the blessing. You know it wasn’t really a wedding, it was more of a funeral. Everybody was crying. My uncle cried so much that even the rabbi could not do the blessing.  I don’t have any pictures of course, how could I have pictures.  So I got married and I went with my husband to Miskolc, the other town.

After a few months, I was pregnant.  I was pregnant and Miskolc was so cold and there were anti-Semites everywhere.  So instead of green or black shirts, people wore those red shirts.   I lived with my husbands’ brothers.  I was the only woman.  He had 4 brothers who were all waiting for their wives to come home, so they stayed with us. My house was full with my husband’s cousins as well.  I was just happy to all be together. I was a balabusta but I had a helper.  We were a group, it was one big family. They were trying to put the business back together and they started to work again at the coal mine.

Suddenly, there was a riot in Miskolc.  There was one guy, he was Jewish.  You know, there are all kinds of Jews.  He was totally nuts.  This guy was making flour and then selling the flour for a higher price to the black market.  They wanted to kill that Jew. They came to our street looking for him.  There was a riot and people were screaming everywhere.  They put rope around his neck, hung him and then brought him through the main street.  The war had already ended.  They walked through Main Street screaming that anyone who dare sell things on the black market will be punished.  I was 9 months pregnant with my baby at that time, my poor baby.  My cousin who was living with us came to me and said,” there are riots, get up”, because I was asleep.  I looked out of the window and I had a crying attack. I had a lot of crying attacks those days. We suffered a lot.  We suffered all the time and we always had bad dreams.  A few goyim had already come to the house and asked for Mr. Reisner. I don’t know what they wanted. Mr. Reisner was one of the bosses that gave work to such goyim and my husband gave them work, in the coal mine.  Maybe they just wanted to frighten my husband. I don’t know.

So when my son Peter was born (1946), I said, I am not staying here.  When he turned one, I went to Budapest to the Palestine organization and I asked to go to Palestine, right after my sister Vali had.  They told me I could not make aliyah with a one year old, because he was such a small boy.  They sent me home and told me to wait another year.  They said, when the kid is a little older, then you can go, but you have to wait at least a year.

In 1948, when the state of Israel was born, I was still living in Miskolc.  The communist party of Miskolc was always asking us for money. They always asked my husband and his two brothers because they were all in business.  But we always gave as much as we could, to help the state, to help Israel.  When my sister came to visit, we also sent money from Hungary to Israel. There were also soldiers that wore English uniforms who came to Hungary to smuggle boys and girls into Israel.  They would also take money with them.  They also got money to pay for the smuggling.  So when the state of Israel was born, of course we were happy and we thought here is our time.  The government of Hungary said, whoever wants to leave now and does not want to be a part of Hungary, of the communist party, the road is open. They can leave.

So we left! Me, my 2nd sister, Marta, who already had a daughter of her own and my son who was 2 years old. We had protection because we were Zionists. We gave a lot of money to the Zionists.  There was a guy in the Budapest office who knew my sister because she had a little money as well.  So we gave it all. We had connections and we got out of Hungary with a passport.  We were told as we left that we would lose our Hungarian citizenship.  So I said, make peace on the Hungarians.  Just let me get out of here. And we left.

We boarded the train and we rode through Yugoslavia. The name of the ship was Kefelos.  It was legal from Hungary and in the bottom of the ship were weapons, we knew about that. They had boards on top to sleep on; it wasn’t really a luxury boat.  It took 2 weeks to arrive in Israel.  We arrived in Binyamina, near Hadera. They took us from Haifa on the train to Binyamina.  When we arrived in Binyamina, it was just us, our suitcases on the floor and my little boy sitting there, under the sky.  It was nothing organized.   It was 1948, in November. There was nothing in Israel. My sister Vali, who was already in Israel came. She waited for us in the port of Haifa but then they put us right away on the train so we disappeared. She had no idea where we had gone to.  I cried a little bit and I was afraid.  I also had bad dreams from the concentration camp experience and I just couldn’t stop crying. Don’t even ask.  They came there but then it was night again and it was just a big open space, no roof or anything.  I was a little worried. I’m telling you the truth.  Peter was so small; we had nowhere to go, just under the sky  We were lucky that it wasn’t raining. My son was so adorable, he was such a good boy.

Binyamina. I will never forget it.  Every time I go past Binyamina, I remember that. Binyamina looks exactly like it looked then.  So when my sister finally found us after taking the bus to get there, it was like one o clock in the morning, really late.  She arrived there with her husband, who was also my husband’s brother.  That’s what I said. The 2 sisters married 2 brothers.  So my sister and her husband took us to a kibbutz. They used to live in a kibbutz. Rachel (Vali) and her husband.  Kibbutz Maagan.  She did not have a penny in her hand.  She didn’t even have a penny for us all to rent a room.  She is still upset about this. Well I had money, I came from abroad. So the next day, we went back. We found out that everybody had gone to the immigration center in Pardes Hana.  There was food there and I ate Halva for the first time. I had never seen Halva before.  We danced the Hora for the first time and it was all for us.  We were happy.  Whatever will be will be, but we are free. We were happy

My sister, Marta, was pregnant with her son.  Her husband’s cousin took my sister and the 2 little kids there and I stayed at the immigration center. He was in Ramatayim. That’s how we found Ramatayim.  We eventually found a house in Ramatayim and we lived there for a couple of years, 2 – 3. We were 4 families in one house. I had the porch. One had one room and a kitchen. From there we went to Raanana. In Raanana we started to work a little bit. My husband first worked with vegetables for a person that had a farm. Later, he worked in a chicken farm in Ramat Hashevim.  We were happy.  It’s better to be here when its dry than the place where we had fat. That’s what the saying says. We didn’t have anything except a bunch of furniture from Hungary. We had a little money too. We loved where we were immediately. We loved it.  As long as were free. That was the most important thing.

When we went to Raanana, my son was 5 years old, maybe 4.  He went to nursery school for the first time. In the nursery school the children were singing songs and they were speaking Hebrew.  I studied Hebrew from my son. I never took a course or went anywhere to study, I just learned Hebrew from him. I didn’t have the time, we worked hard.  But I always cried in that nursery school. Little young kids, I told you I had 3 young brothers. They were little and we loved them very much.  They didn’t even let them grow up.  So we always cried.  I guess we were happy that we were here.

Later, my husband opened a shop in Raanana so we moved from Ramatayim to Ranana.  We bought an apt in a neighborhood. We learned from my father. You keep your money, you work hard, but you have to keep going up. There were all kinds of political sides and we belonged to Mapai. My husband had a Laundromat and he used to bike there, poor guy.  Later he had a donkey and he would go to customers to take the laundry and I stayed in the Laundromat to give the numbers, separate and  iron.  I was always at the Laundromat. The guy from the Laundromat came twice a week and he took all the dirty and he brought back the clean. That’s how we made our money.

In 1957, my husband went to Sinai. It was the Sinai war.  My son was under 13, maybe 12, and my daughter Brenda was 5. They told us at the apt that everybody needed to make trenches.  My son did it for us since my husband was in the army.  He had a very responsible job. He took a letter from Ramli to bring to Jerusalem.  There was no telephone yet.  My husband was 6 weeks in the army.  We could see Kalkilya from where we lived.  The war was through Kalkilya.  I was really scared. I was so scared because I already went through a war and here it is again. A war.  The kids were growing up and I was scared.  My husband came back from there though.

In 1959, my sister Sharika came from America to visit me in Eretz Ysrael. She saw how hard I work. I did laundry in the house, I washed the curtains, I always worked hard. Here in Israel, girls didn’t work that hard. They all slept in the afternoon from 12-4. But I never took a nap. I opened the store in the morning, I was there till 12.  Then I came home and from 12-3 did house chores. I cleaned and cooked and then from 3-7 I went back to the store. I had a bike.  Before Pesach, I did curtains. I washed them, put starch, framed them and then my husband put them on the window. That’s how I made money before Pesach. From that money, I bought my first refrigerator. Believe it or not.  We had a little gas camping thing. We were happy.

So my sister said, Evika, you’re working so hard. She said what do you care, just come and try out America.  Just come for 2 years, just to try it out.  You are working too hard, you’ll have a much easier life, just come. She started crying that she was alone in America and the rest of us were all here together.  She was always alone.  My sister and I were very very close. I loved her so much.  I always loved her. She’s been dead already for 7 years.  So I went to the American consulate. I got the visa to come to America to take the boat.  Then I came back and I said, why should I do that?  I don’t want to go to America, I love it here. It’s much easier now, why should I go to America?  So I went back to the consulate and I brought them the papers back.  I told them I changed my mind that I really didn’t think I wanted to go. They all looked at me like I was out of my mind. You have the possibility, the opportunity to go to America and my brother in law (my husband’s brother) sent me tickets.  Why aren’t you going? You can always go back.

My mother used to tell us that life is like that.  You need to decide what you want to do because there is no later way; it’s difficult later to come back.  There was something written like that in Hungarian.  For the rest of my life, I suffered because of that decision.  I was so homesick because I left Israel and I took my daughter.  I promised the children when I took them that I would bring them back, that I will never hold them in America. If they wanted to, they could go back.

For a year, I worked really hard in a factory. Yes I worked. I’m very handy, I learned how to make sweaters. That was crazy, I worked 8 – 9 – 10 hours, just so I’ll have a ticket to go back to Israel.  Not to buy a house, not to buy curtains, not to buy anything – just to go back to Israel because I felt that I wasn’t ok.  My husband wanted to come very badly though. But I’ll tell you the truth, maybe I could’ve gone back.  Really I can’t really say that I couldn’t have if I wanted to. So after a year, I came back to Israel and I saw my sisters and my husband said so now? Are you feeling better?

We lived in Brooklyn then and I sent my daughter to a Jewish school. I sent her to Shulamith School, that was something special. I paid 45 or 50 dollars just so that my daughter would have a Hebrew school.  My rent was 45 dollars but for my daughter I paid $50 a month.  Trust me; I wanted them to stay Jewish because I knew I was going back to Israel.  It was 1960 already and then it was 1970.

My mother used to say, be careful with what you do because there is no way back.  So we stayed in America.  So what do I do now? I come here for a visit for 2 months. We have a big family here. Now I don’t work anymore and my husband is on pension too. Every winter we come to Israel and my sisters come to America for the summer.

My children are very active with Israel.  They belong to Hadassah and Bnai Zion in NY. They come for meetings and they are always good Jews.  Thank god, god helped me.  My daughter married a Sabra in the States and my son married a Sabra as well.  They met the Sabras in New York. They used to have folk dancing on Saturday night and all the Israeli children met there. That’s what God gave me.  There were a few times that God helped me. My children are good Jews.  We have to be good Jews in America, we are not in Israel, we are not. We help, we do help though.  God helped me.

The bible says we will bring all our people from all over the goyim. That means there are Jews among the goyim. It’s a well known fact that there are Jews in other places. You’re not the only phenomenon.

Maybe my grandchildren will come too.  My sons’s son fell in love with Israel. I told you, he asked me. Why? Why Savta? It wasn’t because it was difficult; difficult we already went through. That’s what I can tell you. That’s our life. What can we do?”

For her full survival story, I invite you to visit https://savtasstory.einstein.me/story-of-survival. 

My family are the biggest Zionists I know. From a young age, I was brought up with Israeli music, Israeli stories, Israeli books and Israeli culture. When other kids were singing nursery rhymes, I was singing “Geshem Geshem.” When other kids were watching Sesame Street, I was watching “Shalom Sesame” and obsessed with Kippi Kippod. Israel has always been a huge part of my life and I have waited since the day Sophie was born to take my kids to our “home.” The place that saved my family's life when they had nowhere else to go. The place that my family helped build from the ground up when there was nothing there. The place I had once hoped to move to (don't worry, I promised Evan I wouldn't.) The place where a desert bloomed from ashes.

While I wish we could’ve brought the kids sooner, between pregnancies, babies, cancelled trips and wars, it was never the right time. Savta Eva, don’t you worry, we’re finally on our way back. And our huge mishpacha of a family are waiting to welcome us with open arms!